Trent Alexander-Arnold’s proposed transfer from Liverpool to Real Madrid has break up opinion on whether or not a neighborhood hero can depart Merseyside with no lasting stain on his legacy. Alexander-Arnold joined the Reds 20 years in the past as a six-year-old and has gone on to win a clear sweep of Premier League, Champions League, FA Cup, League Cup, UEFA Super Cup and Club World Cup titles. His standing is mirrored in a mural that stands simply metres from the membership’s Anfield stadium, emblazoned with the quote: “I’m only a regular lad from Liverpool whose dream has simply come true.”
However, how he might be remembered for years to return in his dwelling metropolis will for a lot of be dictated by the choice he takes within the coming weeks over his future.
Alexander-Arnold’s contract expires on the finish of the season, which means Madrid should pay no switch payment for a participant who has smashed Premier League information on the subject of a inventive output from a right-back.
Here, AFP Sport seems on the key issues dealing with the 26-year-old forward of a career-defining name.
Madrid’s compelling case
Liverpool wish to lord over their Premier League rivals their six European Cups as by a distance essentially the most profitable English membership within the competitors’s historical past.
Madrid are in a league of their very own with 15 European Cup or Champions League triumphs, together with six prior to now 11 years.
On high of the life-style advantages {that a} swap to the Spanish sunshine gives, Alexander-Arnold can be lining up every week alongside his shut pal and England colleague Jude Bellingham, amongst a solid of stars additionally together with Kylian Mbappe and Vinicius Junior.
The highlight on the state-of-the-art, newly refurbished Santiago Bernabeu may additionally supply Alexander-Arnold the possibility to fulfil his dream of changing into the primary full-back to win the Ballon d’Or.
“I consider I can (win it),” Alexander-Arnold instructed Sky Sports earlier this season. “It’s solely the morning after you retire that you simply’re capable of look within the mirror and say, ‘I gave it the whole lot I acquired’.
“It would not matter what number of trophies you win, or what number of medals you’ve got acquired. It issues what you give to the sport and in the event you attain your full potential.”
By working his contract down, Alexander-Arnold is in a robust place to make tens of millions from a signing-on bonus in lieu of Madrid having to pay an enormous switch payment.
And he can argue there may be little extra to be gained by staying at Anfield.
Liverpool are 12 factors clear on the high of the Premier League, which means by the point his present deal expires, Alexander-Arnold must be a two-time English champion to go together with six different main trophies.
“His legacy, I hope, is one in every of an impressive homegrown footballer who’s carried out extremely properly for this membership,” Steve McManaman, who himself made the transfer from Liverpool to Real Madrid on a free switch again in 1999, instructed the BBC.
Follow Gerrard’s lead?
McManaman received two Champions Leagues and two La Liga titles in his 4 years within the Spanish capital and but is getting used because the counter argument encouraging Alexander-Arnold to remain.
“It’s about his legacy at Liverpool and the way he’s seen. Do you need to be seen like (Steven) Gerrard or McManaman?” Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher, himself a one-club legend mentioned on Alexander-Arnold’s alternative.
“He (McManaman) went to Real Madrid and received cups however he isn’t adored. If he stays, he might be remembered as among the best to play for the membership and never far behind Gerrard.”
Alexander-Arnold is already the membership’s vice-captain and can be the pure inheritor to Virgil van Dijk.
In distinction to the period of Gerrard, McManaman and Michael Owen, who swapped Liverpool for Madrid in 2004, he’s a part of a facet usually competing on the high of the Premier League and Champions League.
Should he keep, Alexander-Arnold might be entrance and centre of trophy lifts in years to return as a neighborhood lad turned legend.
But Liverpool are simply the most recent membership to study that the magnetism of Madrid is tough to withstand.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV employees and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
